st
visitations of the sunbeam and the tempest. He was armed with a
rifle, and a broad leathern belt, drawn closely around his waist,
supported a knife and a tomahawk. He seemed, in short, an outlaw,
destitute of all the nobler sympathies of human nature, and
prepared at all points of assault or defense. The other man was
smaller in size than him who lead the party, but similarly armed,
having the same suspicious exterior, and a countenance equally
fierce and sinister. The females were coarse and wretchedly
attired.

"These men stated in answer to the inquiry of the inhabitants, that
their name was Harpe, and that they were emigrants from North
Carolina. They remained at their encampment the greater part of
two days and a night, spending the time in rioting, drunkenness and
debauchery. When they left, they took the road leading to Green
river. The day succeeding their departure, a report reached the
neighborhood that a young gentleman of wealth from Virginia, named
Lankford, had been robbed and murdered on what was then called and
is still known as the "Wilderness Road," which runs through the
Rock-castle hills. Suspicion immediately fixed upon the Harpes as
the perpetrators, and Captain Ballenger at the head of a few bold
and resolute men, started in pursuit. They experienced great
difficulty in following their trail, owing to a heavy fall of snow,
which obliterated most of their tracks, but finally came upon them
while encamped in a bottom on Green river, near the spot where the
town of Liberty now stands. At first they made a show of
resistance, but upon being informed that if they did not
immediately surrender, they would be shot down, they yielded
themselves prisoners. They were brought back to Stanford, and there
examined. Among their effects were found some fine linen shirts,
marked with the initials of Lankford. One had been pierced by a
bullet and was stained with blood. They had also a considerable
sum of money in gold. It was afterward ascertained that this was
the kind of money Lankford had with him. The evidence against them
being thus conclusive, they were confined in the Stanford jail, but
were afterward sent for trial to Danville, where the district court
was in session. Here they broke jail, and succeeded in making their